of Nikias in 421 applies autonomia to Delphi followed by six other named poleis . 16 This is
followed by the Peace between Sparta and Argos in 418 which claims all “cities in the
Peloponnesus should be autonomous” . 17 The King’s Peace then proclaims that all “Greek
cities, both small and great should be left autonomoi”, excluding the cleruchies Lemnos,
Imbros and Scyros, so clearly not every Greek city. 18 In 371, The Common Peace at Athens
reiterates “both small and great cities alike should be independent”. 19 Revised versions of
the King’s Peace slowly omit exceptions and finally, “in later paraphrases of the original
peace in 386”, autonomia is made universal. 20 This only applied to mainland Greece. 21
Obviously, autonomia develops into a concept rather than a right. Clearly, not all poleis
were suddenly autonomous, and Athens’ establishment of the Second Athenian
Confederacy in 377 guarantees as such. The development of the use of autonomia in peace
treaties shows its descent into a propagandic concept, rather than a guaranteed right.
This still leaves some questions as to the importance of autonomia to the smaller
poleis . A state’s own, chosen constitution, controlling taxation and justice systems seem to
appear factors that would be of great consequence, yet autonomia as a concept was
seemingly not an “essential characteristic” of the polis . 22 For example, Hansen emphasises
that the Laconian perioikic communities in Laconia and Messenia were all considered poleis
by all sources, but are specifically labelled not autonomoi by Pausanias. 23 To gain a better
understanding of why this appears to be the case, the classical authors of theory
16 Thuc. 5.18.2. 17 Thuc. 5.79.1. 18 Xen. Hell. 5.1.31. 19 Thuc. 5.79.1.
20 Herman, p. 40. 21 Hansen, p. 40. 22 Hansen, p. 23, p. 37. 23 Hansen, p. 25, Hdt. 7.234.2; Xen. Hell . 6.5.21; Thuc 5.54.1; Paus. 9.13.2.
17
Made with FlippingBook HTML5